'The Vampire Diaries': Grief & graves in 'For Whom The Bell Tolls'

The Vampire Diaries has felt refreshed this season, bringing in new ideas and concepts, but this week's installment crystallised something I've been fearing may have been the case for a little while - I think I might prefer The Originals.

It's not really fair to compare the two given that they're separate shows, and it's not really justified to do so anyway given that The Originals is still new and exciting - it hasn't even aired its fifth episode, while The Vampire Diaries is coming into its fifth season. Perhaps I'm just feeling on a bit of a downer because of this episode. That's not to say it wasn't good or entertaining or that it didn't make me sob my little eyes out, but it felt like a step backwards.

There are a couple of reasons for this. Stefan having amnesia was a genuinely exciting twist at the end of last week's episode - even if daytime soaps have been over-relying on memory loss for years - but by necessity, it required Damon and Elena to go on a mission to try to restore his memories (and keep him from feasting on humans). This meant we revisited Stefan's past, and Elena ended up taking him on the Mystic Falls tourist trail - the school, the bridge, and so on.

It was all fun to watch, but we were retreading old ground in more ways than one. Noticing the ridiculous amount of chemistry between them, Stefan understandably leaned in for a kiss - only for Elena to crush him by revealing that while they used to date, she's with Damon now. I thought we'd kind of moved on from the whole love triangle thing - at least, as much as The Vampire Diaries ever really can - but it was back in huge evidence here.

The effect of that revelation was that Stefan started spiralling, chomping on poor Jesse, who was just trying to help Caroline study and getting embarrassed when she spurned his advances. Now, it's not that I don't like bad-Stefan - in fact, I love him (and Paul Wesley has said on more than one occasion that he prefers playing him this way).

Seeing him and Damon on a brotherly bonding road trip, flipping the car just for the adrenaline rush, was a great way to open the episode. Still, this is what? The third iteration of the less nice version of Stefan that we've seen? It almost feels like The Vampire Diaries could be running out of ideas, relying now on things that have worked in the past.

There are signs that this was a one-off dip; after all, by the end of the episode Stefan had burned his old journals and was instead hanging out with Caroline, the one person that he can trust. I've always loved Caroline's friendship with Stefan, so anything that ramps this up in the future gets a thumbs up from me. And while it's not the first time that we've seen Stefan turn his back on Damon and Elena, it should still hold some interest.

It's also a relief that Bonnie's death is finally known by everyone, and it was in these scenes that the show excelled (though her memorial was eerily reminiscent of last season's, er, 'Memorial').

The tribute itself teetered on the line of 'too much' for me, though it still made me openly weep and had plenty of nice touches; it was strange how watching it I thought about how much the show has changed since season one (mostly for the better), only for Elena to put feathers on the altar - a reminder of Bonnie making those feathers fly as she was discovering her witchy powers. And obviously Tyler's return to Caroline was pleasing, though I wish she'd given him a bit more of a hard time for going AWOL for so long; admittedly, she's in a vulnerable state.

But it was in the scenes where the characters found out about Bonnie's untimely passing that the show really tugged at the heartstrings. Ian Somerhalder was at his best when he was begging Jeremy not to say those fateful two words: "Bonnie's dead." It was a mixture of angry and fury, grief and concern for Elena. I loved the moment when he rushed towards Jeremy in a fury, and you expect him to explode and get violent, only to be tricked with a bromantic hug.

I have nothing but praise for Candice Accola, who sold the heck out of her scene with Stefan, admitting that it won't be okay. It felt so real - almost so real that you can't believe she's acting. It was utterly natural. Obviously, Nina Dobrev, too, deserves credit for her ability to make you feel Elena's pain viscerally when she cries; it helped that earlier, she'd opened up about all the people she'd lost to Stefan. Her raging about not having any funeral clothes was so devastating.

Ultimately, though, despite brilliant moments, the episode didn't really move things along too much. Poor Matt discovered that he's got a passenger inside of him who's urging him to keep his blade safe until it's collected, but pretty much no-one could care less because the Bonnie thing kind of steals his thunder. It's hard not to feel Matt, who's never been anything but lovely to the characters and gets almost no care or respect in return.

And the end of the episode left us on something of a cliffhanger as Jesse returned to the shady as hell Professor Maxfield, his mentor, who was so thrilled to discover that Jesse had vampire blood in his system that he immediately killed him (rather clinically, too, with an injection). It seems Maxfield is in the business of creating vampires, or at least taking his research of them to extremes. What's he up to?

Despite my previous complaints, I do still care how that turns out. I do still love The Vampire Diaries. But even though I enjoyed this episode and the ride it took me on, it left me with a niggling feeling that it's not quite the show it used to be. Maybe it was just a one-off dip and things will get back on track; after all, this season so far has felt like a refreshing change. Whether it gets that feeling back remains to be seen.

Bites & Pieces

I always love when the show remembers that it's called The Vampire Diaries, so hello Stefan's old journals!

"Let me guess, I'm the fun brother and you're the safe brother." Oh, Stefan. If only you knew.

I know Mystic Falls loves its ridiculous traditions, but this Remembrance Day one is possibly the creepiest and weirdest.

I loved the waitress washing ketchup off her hands just before being confronted by a blood-hungry Stefan. A silly but nice touch.

How is this cast so good at crying? I knew that Bonnie giving her messages from beyond the grave was ridiculously cheesy, and yet I couldn't help but bawl.

"On the bright side, our mother died of consumption." You have to give Damon props for his positive attitude.

I did enjoy the show gently mocking itself this week. So, Elena and Stefan acknowledging the dumbness of their meeting in the cemetery, and Stefan saying he was an "idiot" for not saving Elena when she drowned.

"If you say it, everything in Elena's life goes to crap. Do you understand me? Everything changes." I really did love this scene.

The music was a little bit much in some scenes, like when Elena and Stefan returned to the bridge. Normally, the show gets it just right, so that was kind of a surprise.

Matt watching his passenger address him was... kind of terrifying.

While bad Stefan is not really anything new, he has got a point - where exactly has being 'good' got him, apart from losing his girlfriend to his more dastardly brother and losing all his memories?